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emtees's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Sera Lighthaven is a Cerulean, magical beings who live in a City in the sky, linked to the planet below by a tether. It is the nature of the City that eventually it will detach itself from the planet and move on to a new home, and when the time comes for that to happen, Sera is chosen to throw herself from the City to break the tether, a sacrifice that will mean her death. Despite her reluctance, Sera is willing to give up her life to help her people - but instead of dying, she finds herself stranded on the planet below, a prisoner of Xavier McLellan, who believes he can use the magic in her blood to make himself rich. Sera’s only hope for survival and getting home is in her mysterious magic, and in the friendship of Xavier’s daughter, Agnes, a rebel who dreams of being a scientist. Meanwhile, Agnes’s brother, Leo, is torn between his desire to impress his stern father and the pull he feels towards Sera, and back in the City, Sera’s friend Leela uncovers a conspiracy that may explain why Sera survived and what she is really meant to do.
There are three things that really work about this book. One is the world - it is unique and full of cool concepts, from the City in the Sky to magic of the Ceruleans to the creatures Sera finds on the planet. The connection between the City and the various cultures of the planet is slowly teased out over this story, though a lot of questions are left open for the sequel. The second strength is that, while the characters, relationships and plot beats are not wildly original, they are all executed very well. Sera is a likable heroine, Leo as the obvious love interest is on a strong character journey, and I really loved both Agnes, the nerdy scientist determined to break away from the sexist strictures of her world, and Leela, Sera’s friend who takes up the job of figuring out the City’s mysteries because Sera is gone and there’s no one else to do it. And then the third is the friendships: while there are romances brewing in the background in this book, the best connections are the platonic ones, whether it’s the devotion between Leela and Sera or the prickly sibling relationship between Leo and Agnes. I really liked a fantasy book that emphasized the importance of these other relationships.
There were a couple things that were a little… odd, I thought. Not bad at all, but I’m not sure they really worked for me and I’m waiting for the sequel to be sure. Particularly the handling of sexuality and queerness in these books The City has an all-female population (they reproduce asexually, though there is some mystery around that) and the social norm is for women to form romantic triads. Sera feels like an outsider because she’s never been attracted to anyone - but when she lands on the planet and meets boys for the first time, she discovers that the weird thing about her is that… she’s straight. So it’s basically a coming out type story, but for a straight girl. I have to admit, while I get what the author was going for with this reversal, it wouldn’t have worked for me if the story didn’t also have Agnes, a lesbian in a more familiar environment who is going through her own journey.
This book is the first half of a duology and it very much feels like one. Though it has a nice climax, it’s not really a full story on its own and very little is resolved or explained. You definitely want to pick up both books so you can go on the second one immediately.
There are three things that really work about this book. One is the world - it is unique and full of cool concepts, from the City in the Sky to magic of the Ceruleans to the creatures Sera finds on the planet. The connection between the City and the various cultures of the planet is slowly teased out over this story, though a lot of questions are left open for the sequel. The second strength is that, while the characters, relationships and plot beats are not wildly original, they are all executed very well. Sera is a likable heroine, Leo as the obvious love interest is on a strong character journey, and I really loved both Agnes, the nerdy scientist determined to break away from the sexist strictures of her world, and Leela, Sera’s friend who takes up the job of figuring out the City’s mysteries because Sera is gone and there’s no one else to do it. And then the third is the friendships: while there are romances brewing in the background in this book, the best connections are the platonic ones, whether it’s the devotion between Leela and Sera or the prickly sibling relationship between Leo and Agnes. I really liked a fantasy book that emphasized the importance of these other relationships.
There were a couple things that were a little… odd, I thought. Not bad at all, but I’m not sure they really worked for me and I’m waiting for the sequel to be sure. Particularly the handling of sexuality and queerness in these books
This book is the first half of a duology and it very much feels like one. Though it has a nice climax, it’s not really a full story on its own and very little is resolved or explained. You definitely want to pick up both books so you can go on the second one immediately.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
bluejayreads's review
This book did not grip me from the start. It was very heavy on the YA Heroine tropes and moved very slowly. But I liked some things, so I kept giving it a chance.
Sera is our YA Heroine. She feels like she doesn’t fit in, partially because she doesn’t have any aptitude for her society’s career options even though she’s almost of age. Everyone else views her as weird and agrees she doesn’t fit in, but the only thing actually weird about her is that her favorite thinking spot is at the very top of the temple spire. She has one friend who is perfectly normal and could fit in with the rest of society but chooses to be her friend because she is a kind and gentle person. Her archenemy is a mean girl in her age cohort who is prettier and more talented at the societal career options and is mean to her about it. If you’re keeping track, that description has seven YA Heroine tropes. I’ve read this same situation across so many YA books in high school that it almost completely prevented me from connecting with or caring about Sera.
Sera’s world, however, was fascinating. It’s mostly explained through exposition, which probably would have gotten annoying if it wasn’t the main thing I cared about in the book. Sera’s people are all women, have blue hair and blue blood, they possess magic to heal and to share thoughts and feelings through touch, they live in a migrating city that tethers itself to different planets, and marriages are between three people instead of two. There was a lot of world building and I was really interested in this society.
Plus I knew that things would change drastically once Sera jumped off the city. The story moved slowly and I didn’t really care about Sera, but the Cerulean society kept me interested enough to stick it out under Sera jumped, and I hoped the story would change for the better after that.
Then Sera jumped, and the story changed to a whole new story. Now we’re following a set of twins on the planet, who seem to be living in a fictional version of the 1800s – sexism, railroads, corsets, etc. The twins are a boy whose name I cannot remember who wants to impress his father so he’ll let him be part of the family business (which may be producing plays?), the other is a girl who wants to be a scientist despite girls not being allowed to do that. There’s also some sort of racial/political/religious ideological conflict between their country and another one. I had very little idea what was going on, no idea who these people were, and no incentive to care. If this was who Sera was going to end up dealing with after she survived her fall, I really wasn’t interested.
What really killed my enjoyment of this book was a lack of caring about the characters. Sera hit every female YA Protagonist trope and that immediately distanced me from her despite all the opportunity for connection her situation offered. And just when I was ready for the book to speed up and finally get into the meat of the story – and maybe for the changing situation to give me more reason to care about Sera – it switched to a whole new set of characters who I did not know or care about in a much less interesting world.
I’m actually a little angry because I wanted this to be good. The idea behind the Cerulean and their floating city was what really interested me. There was a lot of potential there and I want to stay there and explore that world. Perhaps if Sera had hit fewer of the tropes (or this had been published years ago when I was more tolerant of YA Heroine tropes) I would have stuck it out longer. I love the idea of the Cerulean people and society, but unfortunately not much else about this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Suicide
Minor: Death, Murder, and Animal death
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